The invention relates to a centrifugal feeder for feeding particles and more particularly to a feeder including a feeder disc having a surface from which the particles may be expelled at a predetermined rate and at predetermined rotational speeds.
In studying industrial particles it is desirable to separate the particles so that each particle independently may be examined. The particles may be examined to count the particles, to determine the size of the particles in a particular particulate sample and for other characteristics. Therefore, it is desirable to have a convenient method to feed the particles one at a time into the examining or sensing zone in particle study devices. While it may not be possible to guarantee physical separation of each particle from one another, it would be desirable to feed the particles at a sufficiently uniform rate to provide statistically significant separation.
One such particle study device in which the particles are to be studied is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,966. The particles are fed into the particle sensing zone in this device by an auger type device. Particles which are fed to the apparatus disclosed in said patent by the auger may not all be separated one from each other until they move down the director bore thereof toward the sensing zone as described in the patent. Further, the auger may separate particles of one size range much better than those in other size ranges.